Cardiff wants to deny a monument to Guglielmo Marconi for his relations with fascism

The figure of Guglielmo Marconi, the inventor born in Bologna in 1874 who is credited with the wireless telegraph, or radiotelegraph, an invention whose evolution led to the development of radio and television and all methods of wireless communication, is now at the center of a heated international debate: the City Council of Cardiff, capital of Wales, had decided to dedicate a large sculpture to Marconi because it was in Wales that the inventor, on May 13, 1897, succeeded in transmitting a radio signal over the open sea for the first time in history. The event, fundamental to human history, took place off the Welsh coast, from Lavernock Point in the Vale of Glamorgan to Flat Holm Island in the Bristol Channel.

The project involved the creation of a four-meter-tall sculpture in the shape of a radio that was to be part of a £1.1 million investment in the Cardiff Bay barrage area. Having learned, however, of Guglielmo Marconi’s support for Mussolini’s fascist government (a controversial subject and the subject of lengthy study, but evidently the Cardiff council was enough to know that Marconi was appointed president of the CNR in 1927 and of the Regia Accademia d’Italia in 1930, with the latter appointment automatically making him a member of the Grand Council of Fascism under Law 2099 of December 14, 1929), the Welsh capital’s council is now abandoning the idea of building the work, and the project is therefore under review. The Welsh city would thus refuse to erect a monument to a character who was, yes, the inventor of one of history’s greatest discoveries, but who was close to the Fascist government.

“While Flat Holm Island is rightly famous for being the site of the world’s first offshore radio broadcast,” a spokesman for the Cardiff Council told the BBC, “radio pioneer Marconi’s involvement with the Italian Fascist Party and his role in excluding Jewish scientists from the Accademia d’Italia are less well known and understood.” “After being made aware of these issues,” he added, “the project team will immediately contact all funding partners and begin a review of the sculpture proposals to ensure that the history of Flat Holm Island is celebrated in a manner consistent with Cardiff’s values as a tolerant and welcoming city where equality and diversity are upheld and celebrated.”

In fact, some documents found in 2002 in the Archives of the Accademia d’Italia by researcher Annalisa Capristo would testify that Marconi prevented Jewish scientists (the lists of candidates were marked with the letter E for Jewish) from gaining access to the Accademia d’Italia he headed. However, Prince Guglielmo Giovanelli Marconi, the only son of Elettra Marconi (the inventor’s daughter), rejects the accusations, telling Adnkronos, “My grandfather does not need to be defended, just read and study history. England managed to defeat the Nazis thanks to radars designed by Guglielmo Marconi.” “My grandfather was not a fascist,” he added. “When Mussolini announced to him the alliance with Hitler and Germany, he told him that that alliance would be the end of Italy.”

“I am sorry for what will not happen in Cardiff,” he concluded. “Evidently hostage to ’cancel culture.’ I also read about accusations of anti-Semitism. I still remind those who do not know that in the first Marconi Company, born in England, there were Jews like the Salomon brothers. And my grandfather continued to work with Jewish scientists and researchers.”

“If confirmed, the news in the press about the sculpture dedicated to Guglielmo Marconi in Cardiff would be unacceptable,” said Undersecretary for Culture Lucia Borgonzoni. “To think of erasing the man who ferried us into the future of communications is certainly dictated by a lack of knowledge of the Bolognese inventor. Already since last year we have begun to celebrate his figure, kicking off a series of events that will culminate in 2024, when the 150th anniversary of the birth of the genius who revolutionized the way we communicate worldwide will be celebrated.”

Cardiff wants to deny a monument to Guglielmo Marconi for his relations with fascism

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